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“That is beautiful! To me that is love—when people are exchanging culture and taking a piece of this wonderful culture and saying a word that means ‘Celebration!’”

It’s hardly just another international tour stop when entertainers perform in Israel. But on the second night of Hanukkah in 2021, pop group Black Eyed Peas performed a sold-out show in Jerusalem at the Pais Arena. Right before singing their final song of the evening, front man Will.i.am told a story about the time the band sang their hit song “I Gotta Feeling” at their only show in Saudi Arabia in 2018.

“We sang the song, [and] 80,000 people, 80,000 Muslims sang, ‘Fill up my cup! Mazel tov!’” he said.

The Hebrew lyric appears in the first verse of the song. The packed crowd in Jerusalem cheered when they heard the story.

“ARTS HAVE THE ABILITY TO BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER IN THE SHARED LOVE OF CULTURE.”

Will.i.am continued, “That is beautiful! To me that is love—when people are exchanging culture and taking a piece of this wonderful culture and saying a word that means ‘Celebration!’”

That Black Eyed Peas experience is an ideal scenario, but it doesn’t always work out that way.

The reality is that there’s a constant pressure on entertainers to denounce Israel at every turn. Thankfully, the entertainment industry has had a reliable organization that, for over a decade, has helped artists navigate this nasty terrain and continue to embrace their fans in Israel.

That organization is Creative Community for Peace (CCFP). The Los Angeles-based nonprofit has been Israel’s top ally in reassuring entertainers that they are not only welcome to perform in Israel, but that Israel is committed to peace.

CCFP was founded in 2011, when David Renzer, then chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group, was in Israel for a recording session in Tel Aviv. Around that time, certain musical artists were starting to cancel their tour performances scheduled in Israel, including his former client, Elvis Costello. Another was Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, who wrote an op-ed in The Guardian supporting a cultural boycott of Israel.

“It was pretty clear that the usual Jewish organizations, whether it was the federations or others, weren’t really addressing this in any way,” Renzer told the Journal. “And here we were, people from the entertainment industry, people from the music industry, kind of looking at each other, really troubled by seeing these cancellations and saying, ‘We need to do something, this isn’t being addressed.’”

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel was making headlines as more artists canceled tours. But by 2012, Renzer and Steve Schnur (president of Music for Electronic Arts) founded CCFP, and since then, they have become the go-to nonprofit organization for entertainers creating and performing in a world rife with misinformation about Israel.

It’s been said that “a lie can travel around the world and back again while the truth is lacing up its boots,” but over the past decade, the proliferation of smartphones and social media have enabled misinformation to orbit the planet at light speed (literally), especially when misinformation comes in the form of pressure on entertainers to cancel their shows in Israel.

Renzer and Schnur wanted their new organization to show strength in numbers, and that there was a strong movement to keep a cultural flow of artists between the United States and Israel. Renzer said that part of CCFP’s strength is not only having prominent leaders in the entertainment industry on board, but also support and understanding of the issues from the artists themselves.

CCFP has enlisted many vocal supporters over the last few years. Although CCFP is not content to just have an anti-boycott petition, their website does feature an excerpt of a petition that Renzer said boasts over 40,000 supporters in the entertainment industry.

The petition serves as a reminder to any artist being pressured to abandon a tour date in Israel to stay the course. It begins, “We, the undersigned, wholeheartedly support your upcoming visit to Israel. We know that ahead of your arrival, you may hear negative statements about the country from people pressuring you not to go. We believe that these statements are filled with distortions and untruths, and only serve to discourage meaningful discourse and understanding.”

Prominent signatories include Paul McCartney, Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Timberlake, Elton John, Lady Gaga, Bon Jovi, Enrique Iglesias, Justin Bieber and The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The leadership of CCFP know their work is an uphill battle. Keeping up with social media memes that demonize Israel with catchy slogans have been tough to deal with. It’s a public relations war being waged, and CCFP’s current director Ari Ingel is one of the generals rallying resistance against it. Ingel called the BDS movement’s social media postings “a concerted, calculated campaign strategy.”

“They want to keep it as ‘a part-time genocide,’ ‘ethnic cleansing,’ ‘Israel kills children,’ ‘they’re an oppressor,’ they’re white people,’ and that can fit easily on memes when none of that is true,” Ingel told the Journal. “But to explain that none of it is true takes a little bit more effort.”

This was on full display during clashes between Israelis and Palestinians in the spring of 2021. While rockets were being launched into Israel, the BDS movement went online to take aim at American progressives with anti-Israel statements .

One such example was a Twitter post by Academy Award-winning actress Susan Sarandon. She posted a graphic stating, “Myth: Palestine and Israel are in ‘conflict.’ Fact: What is happening in Palestine is settler colonialism, military occupation, land theft and ethnic cleansing. A conflict means there is equal footing, which is not the case. There is an active oppressor (Israel) and an oppressed (Palestine). A colonizer (Israel) and a colonized (Palestine). This is not a conflict.”

Ingel said that such anti-Israel rhetoric often masquerades as progressivism to gain more supporters, which is one of the perils to Israel in the entertainment industry that Ingel and CCFP seek to rectify.

“They’re spreading memes in sort of the social justice atmosphere that we live in, thinking that an American racial lens can just be planted onto the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Ingel said. “It doesn’t work like that. It’s a totally different situation. We called on the entertainment industry to stop spreading this information because all it’s doing is inflaming the situation.”

On May 14, nearly 130 entertainment figures, including actress Selma Blair, singer Michael Buble and “The View” co-host Meghan McCain signed on to a statement calling on their “colleagues and friends in the entertainment community to stop posting misinformation and one-sided narratives that only work to inflame the conflict instead of bringing about peace.”

The press releases and petitions are only a first step in CCFP’s work in promoting peace and correcting misleading news that hurt both Israel and the arts. CCFP takes precise actions to correct the wrongs running laps around the truth.

For years, Ingel had worked as an entertainment lawyer. When he joined CCFP as director in 2018, Israel had just been thrust into the world’s entertainment spotlight after the 63rd annual Eurovision Song Contest.

The massive event can be described as “The Voice” meets the Olympics—thousands of singers competing under their country’s flag to be declared champion. Past winners who got their big break at Eurovision include ABBA (1974) and Céline Dion (1988). The 2018 winner was Israeli singer Netta. Netta’s triumph also bestowed Israel with the honor of hosting the Eurovision event in 2019.

A massive number of singers were going to be invited to perform in Israel for an internationally-televised singing spectacle.

“We understood right away that these contestants were going to be bombarded with boycott calls to pull out,” Ingel said. “I was in touch personally with contestants and with the participating broadcast companies from all the countries and some of the production people on the ground in Israel that were putting on the event to ensure that no one pulled out.”

Ingel was incensed that contestants who were simply vying to be the contestants representing their home countries were getting calls to boycott. He recalled that there were 12 contestants vying to represent Australia. They were bombarded with accusations that by performing, they would be “supporting apartheid and ethnic cleansing.” Ingel contacted them.

“They were very grateful and thankful that I reached out to them and that they were finally hearing another point of view,” Ingel said. “We were able to ensure that not a single contestant pulled out.”

The event was a success, and The Independent called Israel’s hosting and hospitality “one of the best Eurovision Song Contests in recent memory.”

It’s a tough job to navigate, but CCFP is up for the challenge.

Ingel said one of the tougher parts of the job is when popular artists are directly targeted on social media. Ingel’s team is there to recognize and strategize, because the truth about what is happening in Israel can be easily be buried by bots on the comment boards.

ENTERTAINERS ARE LOW-HANGING FRUIT FOR INFLUENCERS BECAUSE ENTERTAINERS THEMSELVES ARE ACTIVELY ON SOCIAL MEDIA, AND TOO OFTEN THEIR FANS ARE READING THE UNFILTERED VITRIOL IN THE COMMENT THREADS.

One reason that Ingel said the BDS movement so heavily targets artists, influencers and entertainers is that they are unlike big corporate CEOs, the shot callers who could theoretically pull their products from Israel. But a physical embargo is a tough sell. Entertainers are low-hanging fruit for influencers because entertainers themselves are actively on social media, and too often their fans are reading the unfiltered vitriol in the comment threads.

“They flood their accounts with bots, trolls and fake accounts in calculated organized attacks,” Ingel said, citing two common refrains in these attacks. One is that the BDS movement tries to bully the entertainer themselves from talking about or going to Israel. The second thing is that they overtake the entertainer’s social media feed and use it as their own bully pulpit to influence the impressionable young fans of the entertainer. When the people at CCFP catch wind that this is occurring, they work with these entertainers to alert them about it.

During the summer of 2021, singer Billie Eilish posted a short video promoting her new album to fans in Israel.

“Hi Israel, this is Billie Eilish and I’m so excited that my new album ‘Happier Than Ever’ is out now,” the 19-year old singer said.

Her Instagram alone has over 99 million followers. If Eilish’s Instagram followers were a country, it would rank as the 15th largest in the world—more than Iran, Turkey and Germany. That is a lot of influence one person can have over a lot of people around the world. Eilish’s comment threads are not only enormous, but Eilish’s account quickly became a lightning rod of anti-Israel and antisemitic remarks. The BDS movement trolls overran subsequent posts she made.

CCFP sprung into action, and released an analysis of the attack on Billie Eilish’s social media over the course of two weeks. Of the six posts analyzed, the report focused on organized bots and trolling:

Of the comments that attracted the most engagement, 30% were distinctly anti-Israel and were posted by users who have zero posts on their personal profiles (a strong indicator of bot activity). These comments garnered a total of 235,995 likes.

In addition, 48% were distinctly anti-Israel and were posted by users with 0-2 posts on their private profiles (a strong indicator of suspected bot activity). Those comments garnered a total of 291,995 likes.

CCFP then alerted and talked to Eilish’s management team so they understood what was happening: Eilish was being trolled by coordinated nefarious actors. Never mind that the first single from the album spent its first two weeks as the 11th most-streamed song on Spotify in Israel. Six months later, “Happier Than Ever” is still in Israel’s weekly top 100 most streamed songs.

A similar targeting happened to singer Demi Lovato when she visited Israel in 2019. On social media posts chronicling her visits to Yad Vashem, a disabled children’s center and even a baptism in the Jordan River, the trolls went out in full force.

Both Lovato and her fans were attacked with anti-Israel and antisemitic harassment. CCFP stepped in and put out a press release that was picked up by several media outlets decrying the harassment. Lovato, too, has a huge following of fans—over 124 million.

On January 6, CCFP penned a letter in response to calls for a boycott of an upcoming major arts festival in Sydney, Australia over the participation of an Israeli dance troupe. The letter was signed by 120 prominent people in the entertainment industry to oppose the boycott. It featured a powerful quote from Australian rock star Nick Cave.

“Israel is a real, vibrant, functioning democracy—yes, with Arab members of parliament,” read Cave’s statement in the CCFP letter. “And so engaging with Israelis, who vote, may be more helpful than scaring off artists or shutting down means of engagement.” Other notable rock star signers include the KISS bassist Gene Simmons (a native of Haifa) and Disturbed’s David Draiman.

Before he penned hard rock hits like “Down with the Sickness” and “Ten Thousand Fists,” Draiman pursued a Torah study and cantorial training in his teens. And when he hears that bands he’s connected with are putting Israel on the tour calendar, he reaches out to offer support and answer those bands’ questions.

“I try to be just a source of information and I try to assure and reassure them and help them understand that you’re going to dealing with a wave of [explicative]. It’s going to be temporary, and at the end, you’re going to end up gaining a tremendous amount of more fans…it’s unfortunately the extremist voices that are the loudest. Of course, there aren’t as many of ‘em as you think. But they tend to scream quite a bit.”

Those loud voices and faceless fights are always a challenge for CCFP. With a world glued to smartphones, it is dangerous to ignore the public relations war against Israel. Even if most of the infantry of the anti-Israel social media crusade would never talk in person the same way they talk online, the stakes are too high to be taken lightly for Israel’s future.

Ingel’s frustration with anti-Israel hypocrisy becomes even more evident in his voice when he mentions the calls for a boycott of the Tel Aviv International LGBTQ+ Film Festival (TLVFest).

“There [are] Palestinian filmmakers [who] are part of that event,” Ingel said. “That’s not something you would assume [the BDS movement] would go after—and they do.”

There were two films by Palestinian filmmakers that were featured in the 2021 festival. Ingel and CCFP were able to have over 200 prominent entertainment figures sign onto the opposition of the boycott of TLVFest, including actor Neil Patrick Harris and actress Mila Kunis.

Another prominent entertainment figure who is always quick to sign on to CCFP’s initiatives to oppose cultural boycotts of Israel is Ben Silverman. While he is an Emmy-award winning executive producer of NBC’s “The Office,” Silverman has spent his career working on dozens of films and television shows that shed light on injustice and misinformation.

“IT REALLY INFURIATED ME THAT THERE WAS SUCH HYPOCRISY ABOUT THE ARTS COMING TO ISRAEL. [IT’S] A PLACE THAT NOT ONLY FOSTERS SOME BRILLIANT ARTISTIC OUTPUT, BUT IS ALSO SUCH A DEMOCRATIC AND CULTURALLY-TOLERANT STATE.”

“I truly care about giving voice and opportunity to artists around the world,” Silverman told the Journal about his continued reasons for staying involved with CCFP’s mission. “It really infuriated me that there was such hypocrisy about the arts coming to Israel. [It’s] a place that not only fosters some brilliant artistic output, but is also such a democratic and culturally-tolerant state.”

Every time he is asked by CCFP to make a phone call to help out the cause, he remembers his motivation.

“The arts— artistic conversations and artistic moments—open conversations, open doors and build bridges. It’s actually one of the great and most effective tools of humanity to connect people through laughter or music or drama or painting and all the emotions that great art can convey,” Silverman said. “So it’s just particularly disappointing and pathetic that people would not allow artists to thrive wherever they wanted to go and to travel freely to express their art. So I’m passionately supportive of CCFP’s mission.”

“THE ARTS— ARTISTIC CONVERSATIONS AND ARTISTIC MOMENTS—OPEN CONVERSATIONS, OPEN DOORS AND BUILD BRIDGES. IT’S ACTUALLY ONE OF THE GREAT AND MOST EFFECTIVE TOOLS OF HUMANITY TO CONNECT PEOPLE THROUGH LAUGHTER OR MUSIC OR DRAMA OR PAINTING AND ALL THE EMOTIONS THAT GREAT ART CAN CONVEY.”

Silverman sees entertainment and storytelling as an elevated way to shine a light on multiple subjects and a means to give voice to those who may not have a voice. He’s especially irked by mobs of people making harmful statements about complicated subjects without understanding them. And he took on the role of entertainment “bridge builder” long-before he became active with CCFP.

One of Silverman’s earlier projects he produced, a documentary series on FX called “30 Days,” epitomizes his approach to using the arts to build bridges. Each episode would document a person in an unfamiliar situation for 30 days. The 2005 episode, “Muslims and America,” had a conservative Christian man live with a Muslim family and embrace their customs for 30 days.

The family, the Christian man and the show’s host Morgan Spurlock presented an inspiring arc of breakthroughs and illuminations about religious respect, peace and coexistence. For that episode, the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Los Angeles gave the show a “Media Bridge Builder” award.

CCFP uses their platform every year to award individuals in the entertainment industry who have championed the cause of promoting the arts as a bridge to peace and counter antisemitism in the entertainment industry. The honor, called the “Ambassadors of Peace” award, also galvanizes “support against the cultural boycott of Israel.” Past honorees have included musician Ziggy Marley, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. and 12-time Oscar nominated songwriter, Diane Warren.

One particular 2021 honoree, Electric Feel Entertainment CEO Austin Rosen, made a simple but impactful reminder in his acceptance speech that music is a universal language that brings people together. The 33-year old New York native will be expanding his production business to Tel Aviv this year by building a studio and signing Israeli-based talent. Rosen, who is also the manager of rapper Post Malone, was named “Manager of the Year” by Variety.

CCFP’s continued success depends on young leaders like Rosen to maintain a creative pipeline between Israel and the rest of the world. But long-time veterans of the entertainment industry may have some of the most practical advice to the people CCFP aims to influence.

Haim Saban, an Israeli-American media mogul and longtime CCFP advocate, had much to say about what the future may hold for the public affairs war against entertainment and Israel.

“An environment which values and fosters dialogue as a tool to understand each other can change realities,” Saban told the Journal. “I think it’s important to have patience, and accept when someone disagrees. Just because someone is on the other side today, doesn’t mean they will be tomorrow.”

Saban’s words hold much gravity in this realm. He was born in Egypt, raised in Israel and has spent over 50 years in the entertainment business. His success has put him in the ear of heads of state in both the U.S. and Israel. He has negotiated lucrative mergers and acquisitions in the entertainment industry. As a fervent Israel advocate and a business leader, Saban has a valued vantage point in foreseeing the basic challenges of CCFP’s mission. He said it starts with humanization.

“TOO MANY FOLKS SEE ISRAEL AND ISRAELIS SOLELY THROUGH THE CONFLICT IN A VERY ONE-SIDED, POLITICIZED MANNER, RATHER THAN AS HUMAN BEINGS WITH COMPLEX STORIES.”

“Too many folks see Israel and Israelis solely through the conflict in a very one-sided, politicized manner, rather than as human beings with complex stories,” he said. “In recent years, we’ve seen an improvement in the representation of Israelis and Jews in the media, but there’s still work to be done. When someone like Gal Gadot is featured in the media, the audience connects with her as an Israeli.”

While Israel’s virtues should speak for themselves, it’s difficult for the small country to compete with the BDS movement’s coordinated campaigns. And while it may be easy to dismiss what an entertainer has to say about critical world issues, it’s dangerous to underestimate the ease and speed at which entertainers may be influenced by the millions. That which entertains us has the power to influence our thinking. CCFP exists to ensure there’s a future of discourse and arts flowing between Israel and the rest of the world.

“Nonprofits like Creative Community for Peace provide an avenue for artists and public figures to stand in solidarity in the pursuit of peace,” Saban said. “The only way to counter boycotts, misinformation and cultural pressure is to push for dialogue and continue to build bridges through artistic expression. Arts have the ability to bring people together in the shared love of culture.”

By: Brian Fishbach

Read the original article here.

This month, several editorials have been published and countless toxic comments made on ­social media calling on artists to boycott the Sydney Festival.

The reason? The Israeli ­Embassy in Sydney wanted financially to support the artists, musicians and community of Sydney, a gesture of goodwill and friendship that has been offered in past festivals by numerous other ­embassies and internationally ­affiliated companies and organisations.

As an Australian who has worked with some of the most well-known cultural, film and music acts in the world, I feel compelled to respond to this disturbing, divisive and hugely counter­productive call. A call that harms local artists, unfairly demonises and dehumanises Israelis and ultimately damages the prospects for peace in the Middle East.

My work as an entertainment lawyer has included representation of film directors, writers and actors from all over the Middle East including Egyptians, Iranians, Saudis, Palestinians as well as Israelis. At the request of the Film Festival in Beirut, I was invited to teach a masterclass to young Middle Eastern filmmakers and share my 38 years of experience in an effort to help the next generation learn about the industry. The week that I spent there was one of the most fulfilling chapters of my career. It included leading a discussion with representatives from around the Middle East on how bringing ­together people in the arts is a way of finding commonality – building bridges together, not pulling them down.

During my career I’ve witnessed the power of cultural experiences, like music, to unite people of different backgrounds and from diverse communities. And I’ve used my platform to stand in solidarity with others.

The calls to boycott Israel, Israeli artists and festivals like this one merely dampen the constructive forms of engagement needed to bring Israelis, Palestinians and the international community together. They make it more difficult to establish trust, mutual understanding and compromise. Artists and entertainers have the ability to effect positive change and the selective targeting of Israel for a cultural boycott not only does not bring the region any closer to peace, but also fails and silences artists in the process.

In the worst instances, these boycotts have led to death threats against cultural icons including Argentine footballer Lionel Messi and songwriter Paul McCartney for merely wishing to visit Israel to play a friendly soccer match and perform at a concert there.

Hamas, which is a member of the boycott movement’s central committee, just publicly declared its support for the entertainers who have pulled out. Hamas is an internationally designated terrorist organisation whose aim is the destruction of Israel.

There’s a curious talking point used by those in favour of boycotting Israel and it can be found on the website of the activists spearheading the boycott of the Sydney Festival. It states: “Israel has long used culture and the arts to cloak its atrocities against the Palestinian people.” There is an insidious logic to such a statement. Are Israelis allowed to support the arts without being accused of doing so for shadowy reasons? Is every Israeli action, regardless of how benign, philanthropic or altruistic, an attempt to “cloak” Israeli domestic policies? Would we levy the same accusations against Australia? If so, is the Sydney Festival itself some sort of PR stunt to cover up our own ­nation’s shortcomings? This is a fallacious argument at its core.

There is such a thing as objective truth. And the assertion that Israel is an inherently racist, colonialist, apartheid state is simply not true. The calls to boycott Israeli-affiliated events like the Sydney Festival, push concepts of “us versus them” and “good versus evil”, paint the current conflict as undeniably simple. And if you question its supposed simplicity, you only prove your guilt of ­“oppression”. Those calling for this boycott refuse to acknowledge the considerable complexity, ­nuance and legitimate obstacles to peace that exist. They refuse to acknowledge that Jews are indigenous to the land of Israel and that more than half of Israelis are Mizrahi or Sephardic Jews who never left the Middle East when Jews were dispersed around the world by invaders centuries ago.

Recognising this truth doesn’t prevent peace, but allows for a mature, robust dialogue of how to achieve it. And it does so without misleading slogans, incendiary accusations and heated boycotts.

Unfortunately, the calls to boycott the Sydney Festival misrepresent basic truths about the Israeli state and weaponise indigeneity, while unfairly pressuring local artists from performing.

Let’s elevate the conversation, commit to being partners in peace, honour the lived history of Jews in their indigenous homeland and support local artists who want to perform in theirs.

While art can reflect politics, and artists can choose to reflect their politics in their own art, art should never become subservient to politics and artists and cultural events should never be forced to be politicised. Ultimately, the boycott movement is an affront to Palestinian and Israeli moderates alike who are seeking to reach peace through compromise, exchange and mutual recognition.

Craig Emanuel is the chair of the Entertainment and Media Practice of global legal firm Paul Hastings.

Craig Emanual is also an Advisory Board member of Creative Community for Peace.

An anti-­Israeli protest boycotting the Sydney Festival has been slammed as censorship for political purposes by celebrities around the world, including KISS frontman Gene Simmons.

By: Christopher Harris

Hollywood heavyweights have clapped back at anti-­Israeli protesters boycotting the Sydney Festival after the Israeli embassy handed over $20,000 to help the arts ­festival put on a series of ­contemporary dance performances by a world-renowned choreographer.

So far 11 events have been cancelled from the festival’s line-up of plays, concerts and other performances due to ­artists pulling out.

A Jewish leader on Thursday said nobody batted an eyelid when the Chinese Communist Party-controlled China Southern Airlines sponsored the festival for seven years but the latest partnership triggered outrage, including from comedian Tom Ballard who said the money should be handed back.

“I respectfully ask that (the Sydney Festival) review its ­decision and return the funding in question, and I call on other artists to consider joining this boycott, too,” Ballard said.

The cast and crew of the play Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner also pulled out, saying that remaining involved would mean being complicit with “the art-washing of their star sponsor’s apartheid state”.

But Hollywood heavyweights, including Nancy Spielberg, as well as KISS frontman Gene Simmons signed an open letter yesterday urging Australians to resist ­attempts at censorship for political purposes.

“While art can reflect politics and artists can choose to reflect their politics in their own art, art should never ­become subservient to politics, and artists and cultural events should never be forced to be politicised,” the letter said.

Warner Records chief executive Aaron Bay-Schuck and Australian ­musician Nick Cave were also among the 120 signatories to the letter, co-­ordinated by the Creative Community for Peace — a non-profit group promoting the arts as a means to counter anti-Semitism and oppose the cultural boycott of Israel.

The $20,000 reportedly paid by the Israeli embassy went to supporting the presentation of Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin’s Decadance at the Sydney Opera House from Thursday.

A festival spokesman said the performance was close to selling out, and of the 133 events originally scheduled, 11 were not proceeding.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Darren Bark said China had indirectly backed the event for years.

“Despite the accusations against China’s government regarding the genocide against the Uyghurs and the Tibetans, there were no similar boycott campaigns like we are seeing this year,” he said.

Cover photo: By gdcgraphics, <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0″ title=”Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0″>CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, <a href=”https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5218425″>Link</a>

For additional coverage visit:

Sky News

The Sydney Morning Herald 

NME Music

The Jerusalem Post 

Although they’ve performed predominantly cover songs since their inception in 2008, Rana Choir just released an original collaboration with Los Angeles-based indie pop band Distant Cousins.

Rana Choir is the only Jewish and Arab women’s choir in Israel. It features singers from Muslim, Jewish and Christian faiths who consider one another family, and their very existence as a group is an anomaly in the Middle East. 

Although they’ve performed predominantly cover songs since their inception in 2008, Rana Choir just released an original collaboration with Los Angeles-based indie pop band Distant Cousins. The two groups are 7,000 miles away from each other, yet they managed to write and record a high-quality, professional sounding song, “Omdot B’Yachad / Wakfal Sawa” (“Standing Together”), using iPhones, Androids and Dropbox. 

“We were not interested in doing another song about peace and love,” Rana Choir Founder Mika Danny told the Journal. “We were all at a point where we felt very angry about the situation here, very frustrated with the situation between Arab and Jews inside Israel.” 

In Danny’s opinion, the prejudice and racism that come between people of different backgrounds in Israel is due to the fact that they don’t know each other personally. She sees Rana Choir as a vector to help people change their perceptions of one another. 

The idea for the collaboration came from  Ari Ingel, director of the L.A.-based entertainment industry nonprofit organization, Creative Community for Peace. The organization’s mission is to promote the arts for peace and use music to build bridges between diverse communities. Ingel knew of the inspiring story behind Rana Choir and thought they’d be a great fit for with Distant Cousins.

“We’re always looking to find people who are similarly aligned,” Ingel told the Journal. “Distant Cousins sent us a video they had done at the Staples Center with Muslim and Jewish kids here in L.A., and they did this amazing real-time workshop where they made a song with the kids in the room. They shout out different words and they play a chord. I thought it was phenomenal.” 

The way Distant Cousins worked with the children, Ingel thought, would be an excellent way to use the arts to showcase common ground between Jews and Arabs within Israel.

Distant Cousins frequently use their musical talents to write marketing jingles for prominent businesses. The trio is adept at making music by committee, as they have been creating music to order for over seven years.

The first songwriting session began with conversations between with Rana Choir members and Distant Cousins about what the women experience daily in regards to what they call “the situation” between Jews and Arabs in Israel. Distant Cousins members Dov Rosenblatt, Duvid Swirsky and Ami Kozak led the women of the choir in a deep discussion, eliciting thoughts and frustrations together—all via Zoom.

“THAT JUST MAKES FOR THE BEST SONGS BECAUSE IT COMES FROM A REAL PLACE.”
– DOV ROSENBLATT, DISTANT COUSINS

“These women were ready to share real, important conversations…just different issues that they face, [and] politically, the disappointment they feel,” said Rosenblatt. “That just makes for the best songs because it comes from a real place.”

Towards the end of the sharing session, they asked the choir, “Where do you see the light? Where do you see hope in this situation?”

“One of the things we see over and over again in these workshops is that no matter who the people are, it’s amazing how much we have in common with each other,” Swirsky said of the collaboration process. “Having that shared goal really helps people get closer.”

Distant Cousins had the singers listen to a few songs that would influence the overall tonality, including “Imagine” by John Lennon, “We Shall Overcome” by Joan Baez and “The Times They Are A-Changin” by Bob Dylan.

The conversation was mostly in English; Swirsky, who grew up in Israel, translated for the Hebrew speakers. Distant Cousins learned some new Arabic and Hebrew phrases and expressions in the process. 

However, Danny and the choir members insisted that the song must have a Middle Eastern sound, not Western, operatic or classical.

“I found out very quickly when I started working with the choir that the texture of the women’s different voices and accents is not a classical sound,” Danny said. “Their real forte is ethnic music.”

After that first sharing session, Rosenblatt, Swirsky and Kozak created a “word cloud” image of the most popular words Rana Choir members used in their discussion, including “country,” “future,” “cooperation,” “leaders,” “children,” “separatism,” “incitement,” “reality” and “people.”

Danny was impressed with how much the women’s struggles aligned in the challenging discussion. She was quick to point out, though, that the political opinions among the women of the choir are vastly divergent, yet their day-to-day challenges and desires are quite similar.

The guys of Distant Cousins came back with a song with a Middle Eastern tone, and lyrics mostly in English (with some Hebrew and Arabic interspersed throughout). These are the opening lines:

I am worried
I am tired
Where is our country?
Lost in a losing fight
To my children
You are my hope
Tomorrow will be better

Harmonies were written. The tenors, altos and sopranos were each assigned their respective arrangements. Rana Choir members recorded their parts and uploaded them to Dropbox, and Kozak layered and optimized the tracks, like any other song production. Drums and strings were added, and the result, “Omdot B’Yachad / Wakfal Sawa,” can be seen on YouTube. 

Looking back, Danny reflected on lessons the world can learn from Rana Choir.

“When you sing in a choir, the most basic thing is [that] you have to always listen carefully to the person on your right and on your left, and be synchronized with them,” Danny said. “I think we all listen much more when we sing than when we talk. Just listening is a good starting point for a dialogue. It creates a great intimacy, hearing each other’s voices, hearing the person next to you expressing at this specific moment.” 

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Helen Mirren, Mila Kunis and Zachary Quinto have slammed filmmakers calling for a boycott of an Israeli LGBTQ+ film festival.

Last year, moviemakers including Turner Prize winner Charlotte Prodger and Palme d’Or nominee Alain Guiraudie led calls for a boycott of the Tel Aviv International LGBTQ Film Festival in protest of the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.

Ahead of this year’s event, a host of big names including Helen, Mila, Zachary, Neil Patrick Harris, Billy Porter, and Gene Simmons have signed a letter slamming activists and entertainment figures who back a boycott.

“We reject any attempt to boycott TLVFest – Israel’s largest LGBTQ Film Festival – which works to showcase the stories of LGBTQ people globally and create a brighter future for LGBTQ people both inside Israel and around the world,” their letter, published by the Creative Community for Peace nonprofit, reads. “We stand united with all the participating filmmakers against the divisive rhetoric espoused by boycott activists who seek to misinform, bully and intimidate artists into removing their films from the festival or shame them for participating in the festival.”

The upcoming event, also known as TLVFest, is slated to start on 11 November. Each year it comes under fire from activists from the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement who demand their supporters cut cultural and economic ties with Israel.

The movement has some high-profile supporters, including Roger Waters, Brian Eno and Normal People author Sally Rooney, while Lorde also cancelled a concert in Israel at the request of fans backing a boycott.

However, it has been called antisemitic for its singling out of Israel for action, and acts including Radiohead and Nick Cave have slammed those requesting they do not perform in the Jewish state.

Cover Photo: Getty Images -Credit: Amy Sussman / Staff

Read the original article on Daily Mail here.

• A new social media analysis shows Billie Eilish’s Instagram account was targeted by anti-Semitic bots and trolls after she promoted her new album on MTV Israel
• The 19-year-old pop singer released a video to her Israeli audience on July 31, announcing the release of her second studio album, Happier Than Ever
• Her account was then ‘flooded with thousands of bot-driven comments consisting of Palestinian flags and other Palestine solidarity-themed comments’
• A report by pro-Israel organization titled ‘Manufactured Outrage’ obtained by DailyMail.com  six posts Eilish made between July 31 and August 5 
• Among the top comments, 30 per cent were anti-Israel and posted by users with no posts on their personal profile (a strong indicator of bot activity)
• Director Ari Ingel told DailyMail.com it’s ‘difficult to say for certain’ who’s behind the attacks, but the CCFP suspects ‘state actors’ including Iran
• ‘These are fraudulent accounts, carrying out coordinated Anti-Israel campaigns by actors who have one goal, and that’s to demonize and delegitimize Israel,’ he said

By Josh Boswell

PUBLISHED: 08:35 EDT, 11 October 2021 | UPDATED: 13:56 EDT, 11 October 2021

Billie Eilish was targeted by armies of anti-Semitic bots and trolls online after promoting her new album on MTV Israel, a new social media analysis found.

The 19-year-old pop singer made a series of promotional videos for her second studio album, Happier Than Ever, each tailored to a different country, following its July 30 release.

She shared a clip on July 31 aimed at her Israeli audience, saying ‘Hi Israel, I’m so excited that my new album, ‘Happier Than Ever,’ is out now.’

By: Roy Trakin

On a cool, fall October night, the Creative Community for Peace (CCFP) held its third annual “Ambassadors of Peace” fundraising event to a backyard full of smiles. After taking a year off for the pandemic, the music industry came out in force to support the organization that has tried to counteract calls to boycott Israel by encouraging artists and creatives across entertainment to learn more about the region and performing in the country.

CCFP launched in 2018 with inaugural honorees Scooter Braun, then Geffen Records chief Neil Jacobson and Warner Music Group A&R executive Aton Ben-Horin. This year’s diverse crop of honorees included Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr., hit songwriter Diane Warren, Sony Music Latin America, Spain & Portugal chairman/CEO Afo Verde, Columbia Records SVP A&R/Unrestricted President Ben Madahhi, Co-Star Entertainment president Traci Szymanski, and Electric Feel Entertainment founder/CEO Austin Rosen. (Watch Post Malone, a management client at Electric Feel, congratulate Rosen via video above.)

Elizabeth Wagmeister

May 20, 2021 8:30am PT

After an attack at a Los Angeles restaurant that is under investigation by the LAPD as a hate crime, Hollywood is speaking out against antisemitism.

Debra Messing, Mayim Bialik, Meghan McCain and Kim Kardashian are among the celebrities who have taken to social media, urging for peace and calm amid the alarming escalation of deadly violence between Israelis and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. The mounting toll of more than 200 casualties threatens to inflame the entire Middle East.

The tensions across the world have been reverberating in the U.S. through the rise in brutal and public antisemitic attacks against Jews.

“I’m speechless and devastated by the antisemitic attacks in my home city as well as the vandalism very close to my home targeting Jewish businesses in the past 24 hours,” Bialik, “The Big Bang Theory” and “Call Me Cat” star, tweeted on Wednesday. “I don’t even know what else to say,” she continued.

The assault occurred just before 10 p.m. on Tuesday night at a sushi restaurant in the Beverly Grove neighborhood, near the Beverly-Fairfax area of mid-City L.A. The LAPD has yet to make an arrest or release a motive.

Video of the attack shows individuals in a caravan of cars with Palestinian flags shouting “Fuck you” as they drove by the restaurant, Sushi Fumi, on La Cienega Blvd. In the footage, a group that reportedly numbered about 30 people, dressed mostly in black with face coverings, threw glass bottles at diners eating outside.

“They were cussing at Jews,” a man who was attacked told ABC 7, the ABC-owned affiliate in Los Angeles. The anonymous victim said after the hateful anti-Jewish rhetoric was shouted from the cars, the individuals from the caravan then got out of the cars and approached the sidewalk. At one point, a man who was being attacked defended himself by swinging a metal stanchion at the attackers, who continued to assault him, punching, kicking and throwing him against a car.

“I realized I had to take something to scare them,” said the anonymous victim, speaking to KABC-TV. “There were many girls behind us. I was scared that they would attack everybody.”

A separate witness at the scene told the L.A. Times that the attackers yelled, “Death to Jews” and “Free Palestine.”

In light of the attacks, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the LAPD is investigating the ambush as a hate crime, saying on Twitter, “L.A. is a city of belonging, not of hate. There is simply no place for antisemitism, discrimination, or prejudice of any kind in Los Angeles. And we will never tolerate bigotry and violence in our communities.”

The L.A. incident is one of several antisemitic attacks that have been reported in the wake of the conflict. Also on Tuesday, Orange Delite & Grill, a kosher restaurant on Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks, was vandalized and its front glass door was smashed. On Wednesday, footage of a New York City brawl outside of a bagel shop emerged on social media, with the NYPD trying to break up the fight.

“The vicious attacks on Jews we are seeing on the streets of America is pure Jew hatred and a direct result of the inflammatory rhetoric that is being pushed online. It should be condemned by everyone,” says Ari Ingel, director of Creative Community for Peace, an apolitical industry-backed nonprofit. “Both Israelis and Palestinians deserve to live in peace and safety, and attacking Jews in America is not going to help bring about the change we all so urgently desire.”

Earlier this week, CNN fired a freelance contributor, Adeel Raja, who tweeted pro-Holocaust messages, including one message that stated, “The world today needs a Hitler.” A CNN spokesperson confirmed cutting ties in a statement that read, “Adeel Raja has never been a CNN employee. As a freelancer, his reporting contributed to some news gathering efforts from Islamabad. However, in light of these abhorrent statements, he will not be working with CNN again in any capacity.” (Despite numerous antisemitic tweets, Raja’s Twitter account is still active.)

Antisemitic hate crimes have been on a steady uptick for years, globally and in the United States. According to the FBI, incidents related to religion increased 7% from 2018, with 1,521 total incidents reported. Some 63% of all reported religion-based hate crimes in 2019 were directed at Jews and Jewish institutions, making it the single largest category of hate crimes in the United States.

These most recent antisemitic attacks come as tensions are rising — and rapidly spreading across social media with misinformation from all ends — in response to the conflict in the Middle East.

Kim Kardashian, who has more than 222 million followers on Instagram, posted on her Instagram stories on Wednesday calling for peace in the Middle East. “I don’t know who needs to hear this, but both Palestinians and Israelis deserve to live in peace and safety,” Kardashian posted, re-sharing a statement originally posted by Jewish singer-songwriter and progressive Zionist activist Hilary Hawn, also known as HRH. “Anyone who tries to convince you that one must come at the expense of the other does not support human rights for all humans.”

Comedian Sarah Silverman, whose sister Susan Silverman is a rabbi in Jerusalem, reacted to the L.A. attack, urging her 12.4 million Twitter followers to separate the Jewish people from Israel, tweeting, in part: “Jews in the diaspora need allies.” But Silverman’s post drew ire from many Jews on Twitter who called the post itself antisemitic, namely the part where Silverman opines, “We are not Israel.”

Writer, comedian and influencer Erin Foster also posted on her Instagram stories, noting that her friend was at the scene, taking videos of the attack, while seated at the sushi restaurant. “If you learned about this conflict a week ago and think it’s harmless to post pro-Palestine without learning more, you should know it’s harmful. Peace is the thing you should be promoting,” Foster wrote. “I’m Jewish and I go to this sushi restaurant every week. A caravan of pro-Palestine people drove by and screamed ‘Who’s Jewish?’ Then got out and beat the shit out of people.”

Also in response to the Sushi Fumi attack, actor Michael Rapaport issued a clarion call to “social justice friends.”

“Why aren’t Jews included in your activism?” Rapaport posted on Instagram.

“There is so much disinformation about Israel being spread and it is getting people hurt,” said “Will & Grace” star Debra Messing, who posted a long thread on social media. She wrote, in part, “There are videos from all over the world, including the U.S., of crowds of pro-Palestinian protesters attacking, beating, kicking, using pipes as weapons against Jews. It’s horrifying. Attacks against Jews has increased 483% in the last 10 days. 86 attacks. Hamas is a terrorist organization whose sole purpose is to kill every Jew and destroy Israel. Most people living in Israel want peace.”

The Anti-Defamation League, the New York-based international anti-hate organization, is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to the attackers involved in the Sushi Fumi incident.

Read the entire article here.

By: Malina Saval

As tensions continue to flare in the Middle East, Creative Community for Peace,  an apolitical, non-profit entertainment industry organization, has come together to issue a collective call for “peace, balanced discourse and an end to inflammatory one-sided accounts” of the conflict between Israel and Palestinian Territories. This divisive rhetoric, notes the org, serves only to foment an already incendiary crisis that has, this past week alone, claimed more than 200 lives.

Creative Community for Peace was founded in 2012 by David Renzer, former chairman/CEO of Universal Music Publishing, and Steve Schnur, worldwide executive & Music President, Electronic Arts.

More than 125 leaders in the entertainment industry,  including KISS  frontman Gene Simmons, Grammy Award-winning artist Michael Bublé, Haim Saban, chairman & CEO, Saban Capital Group, and songwriter-producer Diane Warren, signed the Creative Community for Peace-endorsed open letter, which urges peace in the Middle East and implores fellow members of the entertainment industry to use their celebrity platforms to encourage productive, fact-based discourse, with peace as the main objective. The open letter also acknowledges the pain and loss impacting all parties involved in the conflict.

“I pray for peace,” says Saban, who was born in Alexandria, Egypt and moved with his family to Tel Aviv, Israel when he was 12.

“There has to be a way to sit down and talk through differences,” says Simmons, who was born in Haifa, in northern Israel, and emigrated with his family to the States at the age of eight.

“I pray for peace. For all.”

The joint statement from the Creative Community for Peace comes amid a surge of violence in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, including indiscriminate rocket attacks targeting metropolitan areas throughout Israel, as well as Israel’s retaliatory response in Gaza. Hamas, a militant Palestinian Islamic organization that has controlled the Gaza Strip since Israel unilaterally withdrew from the territory in 2005, has launched more than 2,000 rockets into Israel, including Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem. On May 15, an Israeli air raid flattened a 12-story tower that served as a Hamas stronghold. The building, located in Gaza City, also housed offices belonging to Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera and the U.S.-based Associated Press.

Friction between Israel and Palestine has also mounted over an Israeli court order to evict Palestinian residents from the neighborhood of Sheik Jarrah in East Jerusalem. That order is currently awaiting an appeal in Israel’s Supreme Court.

A flurry of anti-Israel memes and posts have since erupted on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, with Israeli actor Gal Gadot skewered on social media after posting a statement calling for peace.

“My heart breaks. My country is at war,” Gadot posted on Twitter. “I worry for my family, my friends. I worry for my people. This is a vicious cycle that has been going on for far too long. Israel deserves to live as a free and safe nation. Our neighbors deserve the same. I pray for the victims and their families, I pray for this unimaginable hostility to end, I pray for our leaders to find the solution so we could live side by side in peace. I pray for better days.”

Gabriella Geisinger, Deputy Movies Editor at Digital Spy, called Gadot’s post “harmful.” Writer and activist Aaron Vallely commented that “Gal Gadot’s statement is far worse than that tone-deaf ‘Imagine’ video from last year.”

This vitriol, says Ari Ingel, an entertainment attorney and director of Creative Community for Peace, serves only to “increase the animosity and hatred, which unfortunately, has real life consequences.”

“Misinformation that is being spread online and then amplified by social media influencers, influencers with no real knowledge of what is happening, is only working to inflame the situation, instead of working to de-escalate it and work through some sort of resolution to the situation,” Ingel continues. “The misleading and fallacious memes that are being posted from people that have no real concept of what is happening there and are not experts on the conflict are just making a horrible situation far worse.”

The open letter, notes Ingel, is also to inform the public that “Hamas is playing a leading role in this violence.”

“While we may have differing views on whether the evictions are legitimate or not legitimate, that doesn’t take away from Hamas firing these missiles indiscriminately at civilian populations in Israel, which affects Arabs and Jews,” says Ingel. “People need to call on [Hamas] to stop firing missiles and stop inflaming the situation.”

Along with Gadot, Ingel also highlights entertainment figures such as Rihanna, who wrote on her Instagram page that she “stand[s] with humanity,” and DJ Khaled, who issued a call for “love and light and prayers.”

“I think we need to elevate the voices of people like Rihanna, who are calling for an end to the violence and not choosing sides,” says Ingel. “That is really what entertainers should be doing. Because it’s horrible that both Israelis and Palestinians are suffering. We need to de-escalate this violence as soon as possible.”

The Creative Community for Peace open letter is as follows:

“We are deeply concerned by the escalating violence in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. The loss of life and violence is heartbreaking. We call on the leaders of all parties to end the violence, urge calm, and work toward de-escalation.

“We also call on our colleagues and friends in the entertainment community to stop posting misinformation and one-sided narratives that only work to inflame the conflict instead of bringing about peace.

“While we may have differing opinions on the conflict, it is never okay for Hamas to publicly call for the killing of civilians, use civilians as human shields, and rain down missiles indiscriminately on civilian populations with no care about who is killed—Arab or Jew.

“When lives are at stake, we all bear responsibility to unite rather than divide. Incendiary language only benefits those at the extremes who have no interest in peace. Our thoughts are with all Israelis and Palestinians who are experiencing unfathomable levels of fear and violence, and hope for the day when both peoples can live side by side in peace.” 

The signatories to the open letter include: Gene Simmons; Meghan McCain (co-host, “The View”); Haim Saban;  Sherry Lansing (former CEO of Paramount Pictures); Orly Agai Marley (president, Tuff Gong Worldwide); David Draiman (frontman, Disturbed); Noa Tishby (author, producer, actor); Selma Blair; Michael Buble; Diane Warren; Ben Silverman (chairman and co-chief executive officer of Propagate Content); Steve Schnur; Michael Rotenberg (partner, 3 Arts Entertainment); Mitchell Gossett (Industry Entertainment Partners); Andrew Gould (EVP Music Publishing, Roc Nation); Emmanuelle Chriqui (actress, activist); David Byrnes (partner at Ziffren, Brittenham, LLP); eve Barlow (music journalist); Aton Ben-Horin (global vice president of A&R for Warner Music Group); Kosha Dillz (artist, rapper); Amanda Kogan (agent, The Gersh Agency); David Renzer; Traci Szymanski (president, Co-Star Entertainment); Matisyahu (musician); Adam Taylor (president, APM Music); and Jordan Frazes (founder FRAZES CREATIVE).

A complete list of signatories can be found here: https://www.creativecommunityforpeace.com/blog/2021/05/14/open-letter-on-the-middle-east-situation/